Sunday, December 30, 2012

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “Sometimes a student of ours can have an interior, an inner problem or conflict, and he can suffer dire straits.

Verbalizing, putting the conflict into words, conveying it at a tutoring session can help a lot. The very fact of telling the problem may make it start to solve it – a shared problem can alleviate the weight.

I know you respect your students’ privacy, but also I know that you wish to help them. Sometimes you say to that student that you see him strange in some way, or that he looks worried lately, and that is the trigger for him to shoot his inner problem. That student then can see a way out for his problem by telling it to you. Carry on that way, I’d tell you.

And count on his family: perhaps that problem should be told to them – with the mutual understanding between him and you.” / Photo from: visitphilly com. ethel cee sitting on bench in rittenhouse park. Obviously the pic above has nothing to do with the experience told here

Friday, December 28, 2012

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “I was recalling that teacher that knew how to listen to her students.

She was attentive when a student told her something at a tutoring session, or another student told her that he had not done the assigned homework. The teacher asked him why, and it was crystal clear she was attentively listening to his reasons and trying to make the big picture of those reasons.

She peered and gazed at him, like I said, as if she was trying to find out the deep reasons of this failure. All concerning her students was important to her. She was pretty attentive to her students and her colleagues. I guess one male teacher fell in love with her because of this attitude of hers. They got together at the staff’s hall and the guy, who was a novice teacher, one day told her some problems he had had.

I think the next time at that hall he got stunned because he was asked how things were going – even she asked about some punctual thing he wouldn’t think she would remember. She had been teaching at that school for a couple of years or so.” / Photo from: sedl org. three teachers talking.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “I have told you that it’s sound to plan each class. Much of the success in teaching a language depends on planning.

However, and even more if you didn't have time to plan one class, you can do up and improvise. That class-period can turn out to be good, perhaps because you do have a specific goal concerning those students’ development, and also because you then focus on viewing teaching in a different way as usual. As well, at that moment you could view the way they learn with ample and new lenses.” / Photo from: usembassy org uk. the first english colonists to america. i think this is a replica of the Mayflower ship but ain’t sure

Monday, December 24, 2012

Here you have a translation into English of the main contents of post # 943. / Photo from: telegraph co uk. young girl writing

1.The teacher has a teaching love to kids, teens and youngsters. In few words it’s a profound tendency toward discovering and focusing on the inmaturity of learners, plus toward their capability of self-growth. This tendency implies certain psychological capability of view, and being able to understand and comprehend each person.

2.A tendency toward values. The educator must love and practice values if he wishes to pass them on to learners.

3.Temper, personality. Someone who is not educated cannot educate.

4.Sense of humor. This is a feature that defends from arrogance and being too serious but without real contents or essence. It’s like a resource to hinder from becoming a too strict and unchangeable person. Due to sense of humor we are able of focusing on everyday little things and daily problems. That teacher is capable of focusing on little things, childish things, and unfinished or non-rounded up things.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

A couple days ago I
came across the following text, which is just great for you committed teachers.
I hope that pretty soon I’ll give you the translation in English. Or even you
can translate it – I’ll do it on coming days anyway.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

One day teacher of
English A said to teacher of English B, “I knew a student that used to re-read
what they had studied at that day’s class of English.

At that moment, when
reading at home, she understood more about the stories. Characters meant more
to her and the plot was more interesting too.

When they had finished a unit
from the course book and had nothing to do for example, she used to read and
have a look at the next unit. In this way, when the teacher began the unit, and
its texts and grammar points, the student already had some significant
knowledge.

Sometimes there were points she did not understand, but anyway those
things rang a bell to her. She used to get high grades in the tests and had
some fluency at speaking.” / Photo from: mpsaz org. pencils clipart

Thursday, December 13, 2012

One day teacher of
English B said to teacher of English A, “Last year one of my students had Attention
Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder.

I would say that all of us teachers should
know that this disorder just exists among our students. Between 5 and 8 per
cent of our students have or may have this disorder.

I remember that one
teacher taught him private classes, apart from the regular scheduled ones in a class-group. The teacher told me that he assigned short,
small and challenging goals to the kid, taken from the boy's course books.” / Photo from: rv-103 com. RV 103 towed
web pic

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “You can advise
your students to read something in English for some time, for long if possible,
right before an oral exam.

This reading prepares the candidates to have more
resources to express their ideas in the target language. The candidates arrive at the examination
venue as one who has already trained and practiced, like before a sport game.

Their English then can be fresh, their mind more adapted to think in English. They
are already like in their own land, more likely ready to respond in English in
a fluent way.”

I published the post above in November of 2010. I have changed
small things, like some words for instance. / Photo: cbsnews com. he is lochte, in last olympic
games london 2012

Sunday, December 9, 2012

I have planned a
sequence of pieces of communication to implement along the course I teach to adult
learners, most of them already retired. They’re excellent learners. They wish
to learn English for example for their trips abroad.

The basis for the
material we use is on worksheets with short stories and meaningful-for-them sentences.

As you can see, the approach I follow in my classes is communicative (mainly). One
example: I ask them a question and they respond with a phrase: “What does the
man help himself with, to stroll?” And the students will answer, “With a stick”. / Photo
from: centennialofflight gov. instructor and students studying map. civilian
training school

Friday, December 7, 2012

One day teacher of English A
said to teacher of English B, “Just thinking.

That is something some of my students fail. That failure comprises from
the effort invested in doing a drill to the effort at thinking about the ethics
as the main topic of a long text in their course book.

An example of this latter case is a text where they've got to decide if
reporting or not a case of a starting bullying by a school mate.

Something even farther: seeking the truth. For example, why am I on
earth? What for? What’s my ultimate goal in life? What does my Father God wants
from me? God has a loving tenderness, limitless, toward me, like all the best
dads and moms in the world as a whole.” / Photo from: terawarner com. mom and
daughter

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

One day teacher of
English B said to teacher of English A, “Notice that you’re helping those people
become good professionals at their area of knowledge.

In other words you’re
teaching students how to become good professionals. Remember their job now is
studying.

What’s more, why don’t you tell them these things next
class? They might become more aware of their responsibility. Make them think that
they expect to have a good and demanding teacher of English, right?

Tell them
that they could plan the homework they’re going to do that evening, a planning
that can take just a couple of minutes or three. Also you can tell them how to
plan their exams of the present term, the term before Christmas.” / Photo from:
coracletrust orh uk. camouflaged boy

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

I publish a post that can be
useful for teachers of advanced levels of English or any other language. The text
was published January 8, 2011, on a post from this very blog. I’ve changed
minor things. / Photo from: thisoldhouse com. perfect interior painting

537. Practicing
for the near future

Saturday,
January 8, 2011

Here is a set of activities I
helped to compose for a three-week course of English; a set of activities
directed to the advanced students. We tried to think of high level activities,
professional ones inasmuch as possible; as well it should be useful for the
students’ near future. This document was included in the book I wrote for
teachers of modern languages.

Apéndice 18

Objetivos para un curso de inglés de
verano

May 18, 2007

Advanced group. Professional-like.
Demand the following three objectives from the NN Academia’s teacher. Core point: help the students learn and
practice professional English, in view of social current realistic demands,
plus what their parents told us they expected from the course.

1- The students prepare a
speech about one matter of their choice, from their favorite school subject.
Then they convey the dissertation. Follow-up exploitation by the teacher,
making everybody intervene to criticize the lecture. The students have been
jotting down notes while the speech was in progress, to later say the general
scheme or a brief outline. The teacher asks them questions about the lecture.
The students ask the lecturer further questions or otherwise the lecturer asks
his colleagues questions about his own speech.

2- The students prepare and
learn how to compose an invented utter and extensive resume, as if they were
university graduates or post-graduates eagerly applying for a job. They have to
present the resume (CV) and give further details about it, responding to an
imaginary employer. Exploitation by the teacher and the students follows up
this discourse.

3- The students prepare and undergo a job interview to enter a company of
their choice. Furthermore, their classmates explain whether they would choose
the applicant or not, and why. The teacher acts out as though he was a bit
tough employer.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

One day teacher of
English B said to teacher of English A, “Someone at home last night was
listening to a CD of Los chicos del coro (the music of Les choristes movie). All of the kids were
singing as a single voice, which is one of the most important things in a choir
– maybe the main one. I carried on by listening.

And then I thought of the movie as well.

You can make a
choir from a group of kids. It has something to do with a class. In a class YOU
are the conductor, and the main thing, so, the goal, is each and every student
do the right thing at the right moment.

A real example: think of a teacher who
achieves every student is plunged into a dictation.

With the weeks passing,
you, a novice teacher, I hope you’ll achieve your students do what is scheduled
and planned for that time. Be patient. You’ll get it, and your students will
learn and acquire the language, one step after another.” / Photo from: bestsingletravel
com. St Patrick’s Day Parade Band in a memorial of Eire’s Patron